Windsor, London rate low for impaired driving

The London area had one of the lowest rates of impaired driving of major centres in Canada last year, new figures show. But as the federal government moves toward legalizing recreational marijuana use, police warn they could see increases in drug-impaired driving charges.

Only four other census metropolitan areas (CMA) in Canada had a lower rate of alcohol-impaired driving than the London area in 2015, Statistics Canada reports.

With a total of 444 cases of impaired driving in 2015, the London area’s rate of impaired driving per 100,000 people was 87 cases.

Windsor was tied for third lowest rate with 84 cases per 100,000 people.

London Traffic Sgt. Amanda Pfeffer said the statistics for the area that includes London, St. Thomas and Strathroy-Caradoc were promising and in line with city police data that shows a decline in impaired driving so far this year compared to last year.

“I think it’s promising we’re seeing a trend to alcohol-related offences going down.

“That offence is based on the ability of the police to detect it. We are mobile and take calls from concerned citizens all the time and we are always proactive,” she said.

“I don’t think we can sit and rest or reduce our efforts because these statistics appear to be promising,” Pfeffer said. “I think it’s the opposite.”

In fact, London police have noted drug-impaired driving charges are on the rise as police become better trained and adopt better technology to detect that offence.

In 2015, police in the London area laid 16 drug-impaired charges — a rate of about three per 100,000 people — slightly fewer than the year before.

“I think we’ll see that rise over the next few years as police officers become educated in how to detect drug impaired driving,” Pfeffer said.

She pointed out 2016 was the first year officers have been permitted to issue three-day roadside suspensions for drivers suspected to be impaired by drugs

“Up until very recently we had no ability to issue a three-day roadside suspension in relation to drug impaired driving.”

Such suspensions can be issued for drivers who fail a standardized field sobriety test administered by the officer.

If a driver fares poorly on such a roadside test and an officer suspects drugs, the officer can issue the suspension on the spot or bring the driver in to the station for more testing.

Pfeffer said she doesn’t have statistics on how many drug-impaired driving suspensions have been administered by London police, but noted officers have been doing them.

According to the police-reported charges, the London area’s alcoholimpaired driving rate was less than half the national rate of slightly more than 200 per 100,000.

That, despite tragic and highprofile cases in 2015, including the campus crash that killed 18-year-old Western University student Andrea Christidis in October 2015.

St. John’s had the highest rate of any CMA with a rate of 368 incidents per 100,000 population.

Ontario had the lowest rate of police-reported impaired driving of all the provinces and territories.

Impaired driving rates across Canada have been declining for the past 30 years, Statistics Canada reported.

Other findings released Wednesday by Statistics Canada:

Drug-impaired driving is less likely to result in a charge than alcohol-impaired driving

The majority of people charged with impaired driving are male but the proportion of females charged is rising

Drivers under 20 had the biggest decline in the rate of impaired driving, 36 per cent lower than the rate recorded in 2009

Half of all impaired driving incidents occur on the weekend

Just over six in 10 impaired driving cases result in a guilty verdict

Average fine for alcohol-impaired driving was $1,240 compared to $1,155 for drug-impaired driving